Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-02-03

remarked the subaltern. The major put
down his glass with sigh, and contin-
ned:
well, As l wae saying before, IL was
too horribls and CHASTITY to feel myself
alone, shut in by the dense underwood
alone with those six lifeless corpsos.
With an effort / overcame my feelings Of
horror, and stepped forward TO examine
the bodies. There was no blood upon
them, and at first 1 could find no trace
of any kind of violence. At last my eyes
fell upon what sent.a cold shudder through
my veins. / had often seen fellow Great
ures aye, hundreds of them slain in fair
fight an the battlefield, and had myself
knocked over many man as cNoliy as /
would PARTRIDGE an ong the stubble; put
10 see those men, each with a livid swollen
circle round his neck, with staring eyes,
blackened lips and protruding tongue,
telling that he had been foully and
treacherously strangled, that was a wide
ly different thing
Sure the major must have begun his
examination at their boots, since he
couldn't at first--" began the Irish
man, soto voice, but was checked by
sudden glance shot at him from the keen
eyes of the major, who repeated slowly
and with a visible shudder, of whose
genuineness there could surely be no
question:
"Ah! that was a very different thin &,
and an icy sweat broke out on my fore
head, a., hastily retracing my steps,
hurried back to camp. When 7 got with
twenty yard9 ofthe edge of the wood
saw, not dozen yards away, a native
standing by tree with his back toward
me. He was in full view from where
stood, bat perfectly hidden from any
one in the open space between the camp
and the wood.
He had his rife up to his shoulder, and
vas taking careful aim at something or
somebody. The thought flashed like
lightning a ross my mind-'The villa n (!
It's the colonel he's aiming at My reso-
luton was m ade instantaneously. If he
heard me cock my revolver, then, before
/ could shoot him down, he might fire,
without waiting to take better aim at his
mark.
My hand instinctiyely frightened it's
grip of my revolver as l leaped noiseless-
ly with few cat-iike bounds across the
intervening space, and before the fellow
had time 20 turn around had felled him
TO the earth. His skull was smashed in,
and he died wit bout uttering a cry or a
groan.
"The next moment the colonel sprang
forward into open-he had been hidden
before by large tree that came between
us. There he stood still gazing into the
wood at my left He had evidently heard
the sound of the blow slight os it was,
but was not sure of the direction from
-. -, 10 I'D II 4
was turned almost full towards me, his
hand shaded his eyes.
"As he gazed intently into the wood
heard, faint, yet distinct, sharp click to
my right. / turned my head in that di-
rection and there-my sight was unusual
ly quick and keen in those days-I saw
the rusty, discolored mu2zle of a gun pro-
iecting from the far side of large
tree, and pointing in the direction of the
colonel.
The man that held it was completely
hidden from me by the tree. What could
/ dor
Was to stand there impotent as a
baby To avert the danger, and see my col
onel shot down like dog?
"A shout OF warning would have been
worse than useless; il would simply have
hastened the fatal catastrophe. l could
not fire because he was completely out of
sign there was no part of him 20 be
seen. Even had there been, it would have
ayailed me nothing unless | could have
killed him instantaneously. a bullet
in the leg would probably have not made
him vince or alter his aim by a hairs
breadth, for the fellows were either regu-
lar stoicks or utterly ineensible to pain.
One casual glace had suiliced TO show me
did / mention that my eyes were most
| extraordinarily good telescope and mi
croscope combined, they used TO say
that that aim vas directed at the motion
less colonel's left temple,
"A moments reflection decided me
there was but one chance left; a desperate
one, but still it was chance
~ grasped my revolver firmly in my
hand despatched as IL was with blood
and brains; then without cooking it, for
knew that the faintost sound made by
me at this juncture would be the colonel's
death signal, took steady aim at a point
about a yard from his head, in the line
| knew the bullet must take from the
rifle of the native to his temple. ] might
have aimed at the mu1zle of his rifle had
! not known that the moment the click
of my revolver was heard the death
dealing bullet would be on its way. Whom
| think of that moment of agonizing
suspense my words seem to stick in my
throat
Again tho hint was taken, and the ir-
reverent young Irishman winked az a
friend as he thought to himself; Grams
do stick Ill ones throat sometimes, and
1t takes a lot of washing to swallow them
down"
"These things take time in the telling,
but by iingo! they took literally no time
in the DONG. Pom my honor, | could
hardly expect you to believe the end of
my story but that you know, like myself,
that truth is stranger than fiction.
We'll, / took steady aim at the spot
tEat / knew the bullet must pass, and
fixed it as immovable as if the muscles
OF my arm had been a blacksmith's vice,
80 that when the moment came, ] might
fire without looking at it again. Then, |
with my eyes fixed on the muszle of the
rifle, / watched it-not q second had
elapsed since heard 1t cooked then /
II a.E, .Fvr.~ ftu ~ff1